barnaby barford: love is...

barnaby barford: love is… david gill galleries, london may 27th to june 30th, 2011

barnaby barford ‘how else am I supposed to learn?’, 2011 (detail) H16 x W70 x L40 cm porcelain, ceramic, enamel paint, wood, other media photography by noah da costa

pornography, orgies, certain sexual practices not subjects we expect to see represented in the delicate world of porcelain figurines, but british artist barnaby barford‘s work for the past ten years has been developing ceramic and porcelain figures tell narratives that are anything but ordinary.

his latest series ‘love is…’ focuses on the tricky space between lust and love and the pleasures and problems inherent in pornography.

‘I’m exploring the difference between love and lust, and to a certain extent looking at what each means to us today. how love is beautiful, everlasting, charitable, heavenly, it is something we all strive for in life. lust is momentary, sinful, selfish, sometimes brutal. I think more and more we mistake feelings of love with those of lust. I am not interested in only porn per se – and it comes in many forms rom reasonably pleasant to absolutely horrific – but I am interested in how we learn what relationships and sex are about, and in what order.’ – barnaby barford.

barnaby barford ‘how else am I supposed to learn?’, 2011 H16 x W70 x L40 cm porcelain, ceramic, enamel paint, wood, other media

barnaby barford ‘secret to a happy marriage’, 2011 (detail) H20 x W100 x L30 cm porcelain, ceramic, enamel paint, wood

barnaby barford ‘love nest’, 2011 H45 x D55 cm ceramic, plastic, wood, enamel paint, other media

barnaby barford ‘I scream you scream we all scream for ice cream’, 2011 H76 x W45 x L28 cm porcelain, resin, plastic, 2 way mirror, light fitting, fabric tassel‘I scream you scream we all scream for ice cream’ recalls the victorian peepshow. here a little boy appears to be waiting innocently, until the light in the mirror is switched on, taking him to the centre of an intriguing sexual encounter.

barnaby barford ‘I scream you scream we all scream for ice cream’, 2011 H76 x W45 x L28 cm porcelain, resin, plastic, 2 way mirror, light fitting, fabric tassel

barnaby barford ‘you’d do it if you loved me’ (detail) H18 x W100 x L30 cm porcelain, enamel paint, wood, other media

a classic courting couple turn out to be negotiating something less fragrant than pure love in ‘you’d do it if you loved me’.

barnaby barford ‘I take you to be my wedded wife. to have and to hold, from this day foward, for better, for worse, for richer, for poorer, in sickness or in health, to love and to cherish ’till death do us part. and hereto I pledge you my faithfulness.’, 2011 (detail) H23 x D55 cm porcealin, ceramic, enamel paint, wood, other media

barnaby barford ‘that’s amore!’, 2011 D120 x W11cm porcelain with decals, mirror, wood, mirror

‘that’s amore!” is a large-scale mirror fame that looks like a flamboyant piece of decorative art. it is made-up of an accumulation of 500 exquisite handmade porcelain tiles feature the covers of magazines ranging from the winsome ‘legshow’ to the frankly named ‘backdoor’.

barnaby barford ‘that’s amore!’, 2011 (detail) D120 x W11cm porcelain with decals, mirror, wood, mirror